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he is throwing a gem tonight
Aug. 1st, 2025 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
musesfoolAnyone got a good recipe for corn fritters? We used to make them when I was a kid, but I have not turned up a recipe in the folder of old recipes I inherited from my parents, and neither my brother nor sister had a recipe. I'm guessing it was probably the Bisquick recipe, but I don't have any Bisquick, so I will probably end up halving the Smitten Kitchen recipe.
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Chicken adventures
Aug. 1st, 2025 02:50 pmresonantLast time I saw my hairstylist, she had just bought four chicks and was embarking on a lifestyle of backyard chicken-keeping. She told me all their names. It was sweet.
Turns out chick-sexing is an imperfect art. Over the intervening month, she started to hear one of the birds crowing, but it took a while to figure out which one. It was Dottie.
My stylist called everybody she knew out in the county until she found someone who was both interested in rooster and zoned for rooster. When she was carrying Dottie out to the car to take him to his new home, he crowed a goodbye at the coop as they passed.
Out of the coop they heard some farewell cackling. And more crowing.
Turns out chick-sexing is an imperfect art. Over the intervening month, she started to hear one of the birds crowing, but it took a while to figure out which one. It was Dottie.
My stylist called everybody she knew out in the county until she found someone who was both interested in rooster and zoned for rooster. When she was carrying Dottie out to the car to take him to his new home, he crowed a goodbye at the coop as they passed.
Out of the coop they heard some farewell cackling. And more crowing.
Inexplicably August (hope of a movie | a household project)
Aug. 1st, 2025 03:16 pmumadoshiI'm not at all clear on how it's August. Time, what is, etc. But word has it that Canada's getting Z1L's Dongji Rescue this month, so that's something to look forward to--assuming we get local showtimes. (I'm haunting the Cineplex site.) Having gotten to see both Lost in the Stars and Land of Broken Hearts in theatres makes me optimistic about this one being my third in-theatre experience since covid arrived.
(We won't dwell on not having gotten Long-ge's Only the River Flows, which I still haven't seen. >.< It seemed like that one mainly/only got film fest sorts of releases. In theory it's had an official English-subbed DVD release, but Amazon has three different listings, all from third-party sources, and I'm not at all sure which, if any, is the legit one.)
scruloose is taking a bit of vacation time to try to get a long-delayed household project done. The clowder won't enjoy the upheaval, and neither will I, but it needs doing (and I was the one who was like, "Hey, were you still thinking of taking time off for that this year?", so I have no one to blame but myself).
And now a three-day weekend. I don't know if I'll be able to get my next rewrite fully polished and turned in, but at least I'm going into the weekend with a draft of it, so I should be able to read and maybe start in on the next rewrite.
(We won't dwell on not having gotten Long-ge's Only the River Flows, which I still haven't seen. >.< It seemed like that one mainly/only got film fest sorts of releases. In theory it's had an official English-subbed DVD release, but Amazon has three different listings, all from third-party sources, and I'm not at all sure which, if any, is the legit one.)
scruloose is taking a bit of vacation time to try to get a long-delayed household project done. The clowder won't enjoy the upheaval, and neither will I, but it needs doing (and I was the one who was like, "Hey, were you still thinking of taking time off for that this year?", so I have no one to blame but myself).And now a three-day weekend. I don't know if I'll be able to get my next rewrite fully polished and turned in, but at least I'm going into the weekend with a draft of it, so I should be able to read and maybe start in on the next rewrite.
the future was wide open
Jul. 31st, 2025 08:28 pmmusesfoolI spent most of the day glued to trade deadline updates - the Mets did pretty well. I would say they got 90% of what they needed. I would have loved for them to get a top of the rotation starter in addition to 3 excellent relievers, but I guess the price was too high.
I also had to complete a 90 minute cybersecurity training which was incredibly boring and repetitive, but if it finally gets our CEO or our AP department to recognize fake invoices as phishing emails, I guess it's worth it.
***
I finally watched Thunderbolts and I enjoyed it, mostly because of Yelena. She is so great! I'll never stop being mad about what they did to Natasha in Endgame, but at least we got Yelena out of the fun but way too late Black Widow movie. She is fantastic! I also enjoyed Ava Starr. Hannah John-Kamen needs to be in more things. I could have done without Walker, but whatever. He's nothing.
***
Here's the July recs update:
unfitforsociety has been updated for July 2025 with 16 recs in 3 fandoms:
✭ 13 Batfamily
✭ 2 Percy Jackson/Batfamily crossovers
✭ 1 Lord of the Rings
***
I also had to complete a 90 minute cybersecurity training which was incredibly boring and repetitive, but if it finally gets our CEO or our AP department to recognize fake invoices as phishing emails, I guess it's worth it.
***
I finally watched Thunderbolts and I enjoyed it, mostly because of Yelena. She is so great! I'll never stop being mad about what they did to Natasha in Endgame, but at least we got Yelena out of the fun but way too late Black Widow movie. She is fantastic! I also enjoyed Ava Starr. Hannah John-Kamen needs to be in more things. I could have done without Walker, but whatever. He's nothing.
***
Here's the July recs update:
unfitforsociety has been updated for July 2025 with 16 recs in 3 fandoms:✭ 13 Batfamily
✭ 2 Percy Jackson/Batfamily crossovers
✭ 1 Lord of the Rings
***
pictures for July
Jul. 31st, 2025 05:24 pmpauraqueThe flowering season comes and goes quickly here. The same hillside can be purple one week, yellow the next, and then everything's gone to seed. But we do have some wildflowers still going.
Black-eyed Susans.
( more flowers [3 photos] )
( flower aftermath: fruit [3 photos] )
( (not) mushrooms [1 photo] )
( birds [3 photos] )
( lepidoptera [4 photos] )
( my favorite sighting of the month: feed me, Seymour! [2 photos] )
Black-eyed Susans.
( more flowers [3 photos] )
( flower aftermath: fruit [3 photos] )
( (not) mushrooms [1 photo] )
( birds [3 photos] )
( lepidoptera [4 photos] )
( my favorite sighting of the month: feed me, Seymour! [2 photos] )
Game: Gorogoa
Jul. 30th, 2025 05:46 pmisisHuh, I still haven't finished a book or a show (getting close on Tombland though) but I have played another game!
As I mentioned before, I told my brother about Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, and he enjoyed it so much he bought a bundle from the same publisher, Annapurna Games, and Gorogoa is one of those games, which he recommended to me. I bought it while it was still on sale for $5; it's back to $15, which, it's a great game but also very short (my time was 4.4 hours, and I'm a slow gamer!) so if it sounds interesting to you I recommend wishlisting it and buying it on sale.
This is a beautiful hand-drawn puzzle game. The plot is - obscure, to say the least (I looked at a Steam thread of people giving their interpretations, and they varied very widely!) but the basic story is a young boy's quest to collect five colored fruits. The puzzle mechanism, though, is something I'd never seen: the game window is divided into four panels (like a windowpane), and to progress you must zoom in and out on the panels, drag panels over one another (some of them have holes through which the lower panel can be seen), and move them around the game window (sometimes the panel is just a view on a larger area, which is revealed by moving; sometimes you must line up two panels in a particular way so something can pass between them). The panels are often not static art but contain moving parts, which you often must figure out how to take advantage of. Actually the Steam page "About this game" section does a pretty good job of showing how this works!
Now I am on to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I have already died twice and I'm not even through the prologue part of the game, oog.
As I mentioned before, I told my brother about Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, and he enjoyed it so much he bought a bundle from the same publisher, Annapurna Games, and Gorogoa is one of those games, which he recommended to me. I bought it while it was still on sale for $5; it's back to $15, which, it's a great game but also very short (my time was 4.4 hours, and I'm a slow gamer!) so if it sounds interesting to you I recommend wishlisting it and buying it on sale.
This is a beautiful hand-drawn puzzle game. The plot is - obscure, to say the least (I looked at a Steam thread of people giving their interpretations, and they varied very widely!) but the basic story is a young boy's quest to collect five colored fruits. The puzzle mechanism, though, is something I'd never seen: the game window is divided into four panels (like a windowpane), and to progress you must zoom in and out on the panels, drag panels over one another (some of them have holes through which the lower panel can be seen), and move them around the game window (sometimes the panel is just a view on a larger area, which is revealed by moving; sometimes you must line up two panels in a particular way so something can pass between them). The panels are often not static art but contain moving parts, which you often must figure out how to take advantage of. Actually the Steam page "About this game" section does a pretty good job of showing how this works!
Now I am on to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I have already died twice and I'm not even through the prologue part of the game, oog.
a little something to make me sweeter
Jul. 30th, 2025 06:55 pmmusesfoolI had to go into the office yesterday (for the first time since March! March!!!) and it has wiped me out. I mean, "had to" in the sense that my boss wanted to take us out for lunch since in addition to my birthday in July, 2 other team members had birthdays in late June. We made a reservation at a restaurant about a block and a half from the office, which was great since it was so hot! But not great because the restaurant...didn't exist? There was a sign, but nothing inside the building and the phone had been disconnected. Even though we had made a reservation!
So we stood there for a while in the heat, trying to figure out where else we could go, and I was like, "Pepolino is 2 blocks away, we could go there!" And thankfully, they still existed and were open and had a table for 5 available right underneath the air conditioner, so lunch was lovely after a rough start.
I didn't get a whole lot of work done, but I did have one or two quick conversations of the sort that is easiest in the office since you don't have to set up time - you just run into someone in the hall and chat. Still, not worth having to get up an hour earlier and spend 2 hours a day commuting.
(Also, I ran into oldboss3 and she was like, "wow I haven't seen you in so long! It's so good to see you! Can you send an email for me???" And I was just like, "...I think it's best if Assistant L sends the email, since she will be able to answer any questions received in response and I won't." *shudders* Dodged that one.)
Since I knew I was going to be in the city, I arranged to have dinner withinnie_darling and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tenaciousmetoo, which was also lovely!
And then I came home and even though I'd set the air conditioner to go on about an hour before I knew I'd arrive home, my apartment was still unpleasantly warm. Bleh. Took my bedroom some time to drop in temperature too, which is the real key to sleeping well, I think, at least for me. So I didn't have a great night of sleep. But I probably don't have to go back into the office until late September, so I guess it's okay. *g*
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So we stood there for a while in the heat, trying to figure out where else we could go, and I was like, "Pepolino is 2 blocks away, we could go there!" And thankfully, they still existed and were open and had a table for 5 available right underneath the air conditioner, so lunch was lovely after a rough start.
I didn't get a whole lot of work done, but I did have one or two quick conversations of the sort that is easiest in the office since you don't have to set up time - you just run into someone in the hall and chat. Still, not worth having to get up an hour earlier and spend 2 hours a day commuting.
(Also, I ran into oldboss3 and she was like, "wow I haven't seen you in so long! It's so good to see you! Can you send an email for me???" And I was just like, "...I think it's best if Assistant L sends the email, since she will be able to answer any questions received in response and I won't." *shudders* Dodged that one.)
Since I knew I was going to be in the city, I arranged to have dinner with
innie_darling and tenaciousmetoo, which was also lovely! And then I came home and even though I'd set the air conditioner to go on about an hour before I knew I'd arrive home, my apartment was still unpleasantly warm. Bleh. Took my bedroom some time to drop in temperature too, which is the real key to sleeping well, I think, at least for me. So I didn't have a great night of sleep. But I probably don't have to go back into the office until late September, so I guess it's okay. *g*
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In which a venture was had, a tomato plant was purchased, and a rodent was glimpsed
Jul. 30th, 2025 04:30 pmumadoshiYesterday we ran All The Errands! We made ten or so stops, all told, which is a pretty good outcome; there were two places on my list that we ultimately opted against, because it was really quite a lot (and one of the two is a stop scruloose can make pretty easily when coming home from work).
The critical thing, of course, is that I did indeed get the lemon ice cream. I'd initially decided to go all in and get the lemon sundae, which IIRC also involved lemon curd sauce (I'm pretty sure that was the phrasing, and I don't really know why "curd sauce") and some sort of crunchy lemony thing, but one or both of those toppings was out of stock, so the sundae wasn't on offer.
The ice cream itself was tasty and I'm glad to have gotten it, but I didn't fall in love. (Just as well, really, since it was a temporary thing. I'm not good at ephemeral joys.) The flavor wasn't terribly intense, I think? But it was a delicious thing on a hot day.
The absolutely ridiculous thing I bought was this Hallowe'en figure from Michael's, which I saw go by on Bluesky a few days ago and for which I felt an immediate mighty need. It's very small and very inexpensive and is genuinely cute in person. It's presumably meant to be a Sphynx cat, but still looks enough like Sinha that I feel gleeful just looking at it. It may have to be a bit of year-round decor. ( other things that came home )
( and lo, we have a tomato plant! And...a rodent in the garden? o_o )
scruloose can make pretty easily when coming home from work).The critical thing, of course, is that I did indeed get the lemon ice cream. I'd initially decided to go all in and get the lemon sundae, which IIRC also involved lemon curd sauce (I'm pretty sure that was the phrasing, and I don't really know why "curd sauce") and some sort of crunchy lemony thing, but one or both of those toppings was out of stock, so the sundae wasn't on offer.
The ice cream itself was tasty and I'm glad to have gotten it, but I didn't fall in love. (Just as well, really, since it was a temporary thing. I'm not good at ephemeral joys.) The flavor wasn't terribly intense, I think? But it was a delicious thing on a hot day.
The absolutely ridiculous thing I bought was this Hallowe'en figure from Michael's, which I saw go by on Bluesky a few days ago and for which I felt an immediate mighty need. It's very small and very inexpensive and is genuinely cute in person. It's presumably meant to be a Sphynx cat, but still looks enough like Sinha that I feel gleeful just looking at it. It may have to be a bit of year-round decor. ( other things that came home )
( and lo, we have a tomato plant! And...a rodent in the garden? o_o )
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
Jul. 30th, 2025 10:10 ampauraqueThis chronologically-earliest Hainish novel depicts the events leading up to the invention of the ansible, a device that allows instantaneous communication across any distance. Though it's this technology that eventually fosters the books' interstellar alliance, the science behind it is developed against a backdrop of interplanetary strife. The brilliant physicist Shevek comes from Anarres, a harsh desert moon organized on anarcho-syndicalist principles, completely collectivist. When his own people prove intolerant of his new ideas, Shevek travels to the planet Urras, a lush world of plenty, where he encounters capitalism and formal hierarchies for the first time. Here he hopes to finally finish his work, but first he must face the fact that the greatest barriers are not the expanse of space or thorny questions of physics, but the walls we build between ourselves and our neighbors, as well as within our own minds.
Re-reading this book was not the experience I thought it was going to be.
( The part I remembered: capitalism as dystopia )
( The part I forgot: gender politics (cn: sexual assault) )
( The question I'm left with: what is this book actually about? )
Re-reading this book was not the experience I thought it was going to be.
( The part I remembered: capitalism as dystopia )
( The part I forgot: gender politics (cn: sexual assault) )
( The question I'm left with: what is this book actually about? )
King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne (1985)
Jul. 28th, 2025 12:03 pmpauraqueThis sequel to King's Quest celebrated its 40th anniversary a few weeks ago. It was not my plan to review each game in this series 40 years after its release, but I've done two in a row now so we'll see. (Mark your calendars for my review of King's Quest VIII, coming November 2038!)
Graham now sits on the throne of Daventry, and it dawns on him that he will need an heir. Rather than sending some random guy on a quest to prove himself like the old king did with him, he opts for the more traditional route of getting married and having kids. Having scoured the kingdom for a suitable bride and come up empty handed, he consults his magic mirror and swipes right on a hot maiden named Valanice. Unfortunately she is currently imprisoned in a crystal tower in the distant land of Kolyma, so Graham puts on his adventuring cap (literally, he takes off his crown and puts on the Robin Hood hat from the first game) and sets off.
( Did you know the Robin Hood hat is called a bycocket? Today I learned. )
King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne is commercially available on GOG in a pack of the first three games for $9.99 USD, though it's also on all the abandonware sites and no one seems to mind.
Graham now sits on the throne of Daventry, and it dawns on him that he will need an heir. Rather than sending some random guy on a quest to prove himself like the old king did with him, he opts for the more traditional route of getting married and having kids. Having scoured the kingdom for a suitable bride and come up empty handed, he consults his magic mirror and swipes right on a hot maiden named Valanice. Unfortunately she is currently imprisoned in a crystal tower in the distant land of Kolyma, so Graham puts on his adventuring cap (literally, he takes off his crown and puts on the Robin Hood hat from the first game) and sets off.
( Did you know the Robin Hood hat is called a bycocket? Today I learned. )
King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne is commercially available on GOG in a pack of the first three games for $9.99 USD, though it's also on all the abandonware sites and no one seems to mind.